When one is asked to recount his greatest experiences with wine, it is seldom a matter of simply denominating the finest wines one has tasted. Instead, the response usually begins with an effusive description of the setting, tasting companions, and the culinary fare.

The Sommelier Love Fest, hosted in mid-August by Sonoma Coast’s Peay Vineyards, is an opportunity for the Peays to show their appreciation to sommeliers throughout northern California who have bought and promoted their high quality wines.

John Gilman, whose articles appear regularly in The Viking Life, is one of our country’s most influential wine commentators, particularly among serious enthusiasts and collectors who subscribe to his bi-monthly periodical, “View from the Cellar.”

There’s something about the beginning of a new year that causes us to reflect on our lives. These reflections often prompt us to make resolutions to change or improve some things. This almost always involves a four letter word - that’s right - FOOD.

Melbourne, Australia, 1870 AD. Despite the fact that you drink wine regularly at your large and stately home and that wine grapes had been planted here since the arrival of the first European settlers in 1788, none of what you drink is Australian.

Once a hidden home to counterculture revolutionaries, anti-prohibitionists, surfers, hippies, abalone divers, gardeners tending to their weed, drop-outs, and those wanting to be far from the hum of modern life, Mendocino, California is now one of the largest and most hip counties in the state.

A traveler willing to spend about an hour of pre-trip research will find that one person’s total daily outlay for food and drink in Paris, outside of such ritzy Right-Bank areas as the Champs Elysées and the Opera district, need not exceed $100.

Alcohol is an important wine preservative, and it can make a contribution to flavour. It is warm, spirity, and very slightly sweet. Today its effect as a wine flavour and structural component is even more noticeable than ever. As for its effects as a stimulant...

In the wilds of Tuscany ask somebody about what they’re eating and you’re likely to find out how their mother spent her days, where the good shepherd is located, when a nice fat pig is scheduled to arrive from the Casentino, how to stretch pasta dough to feed a crowd if necessary, or how to make it rich and silky if the hens are laying.

As a Sommelier, I have always enjoyed recommending and pairing the unique wines of Alsace with food, but I had never visited the region. I decided to correct that oversight and visit during the autumn harvest.

My friend Tom Jamison and I were spending some time wandering around Murfreesboro, Tennessee, near Nashville, which, as you might know, is great ‘cue country. Tom had just moved into an old farmhouse outside town, and I was helping him break in the kitchen by splattering grease around and dripping barbecue sauce on the newly sanded counters.

The highest calling of wine is its accompaniment to great food. In addition to being delicious, it should amplify the best qualities of the food, all the while refreshing the palate. For food prepared with a deft touch, no wine excels in this role like Burgundy, both red and white.

Until fairly recently, the topic of wine and cheese received scant coverage beyond suggestions for cute cheese knives and cutting boards, surely the two least important bits of knowledge within the subject.

The executive chef and co-owner of Table fifty-two, Art Smith has received the culinary profession’s highest awards and has cooked for some of the world’s most famous celebrities as personal chef to Oprah Winfrey.

Finding the right wine match with the flavorful dishes of Asian cultures is not an insurmountable challenge, as there are indeed a great many wines that work magically with such preparations. And finding them is relatively simple, once one discovers the key to fine wine pairing with Asian cuisine.

In a prior article, we dealt with four fundamental attributes of wine: body, texture, depth and concentration of flavor, and balance. In this issue, we will consider two additional characteristics of wine, COMPLEXITY and FINISH, both of which are essential to excellent wine.

In terms of introducing to Americans an understanding of various national cuisines, the most influential writers, assuredly thus far, have been Julia Child (French), Marcella Hazan (Italian), and Diana Kennedy (Mexican).

In November 2006, The Viking Life partnered with Gourmet magazine to host a special luncheon to benefit the New Orleans Restaurant Renewal Fund. The Magazine of Good Living opened its doors to 16 food enthusiasts, who indulged in a one-of-a-kind epicurean experience in the Gourmet Private Dining Room.

Chefs love all changes of season because they provide a whole new palette of colors and flavors to play with, but fall is an especially popular time of year because the produce actually requires some coaxing from the chef in order to be tasty.

Born and trained in France, Master Chef José Gutierrez offers a surprisingly fresh perspective on French cooking. After studying nouvelle cuisine directly under the celebrated Chef Paul Bocuse, Chef Gutierrez arrived in the U.S. Drawn to the flavors of the South, Chef Gutierrez soon found himself in Memphis as Chef de Cuisine at the Peabody Hotel’s Chez Philippe.

Great food is synonymous with the holidays. Whether creating a celebratory feast, a cocktail party to ring in the season, or edible gifts for family and friends - the kitchen is an active place this time of year.

I’m going to put a new and colorful twist on southwestern cuisine," said Bobby Flay, host of Food Network’s FoodNation and Boy Meets Grill, just before the 1991 opening of the now-celebrated Mesa Grill. Since then the flame-haired man from Manhattan has earned critical acclaim, including Gael Greene’s choice of Mesa Grill as best restaurant in 1992.

Inviting friends to a wine tasting at home is an informal way to socialize, share some good food and wine, and maybe learn a little something in the process. You don’t need to make it a serious, professional-style tasting with white tablecloths and score sheets unless you want to.

Some restaurant chefs go to extraordinary lengths to find exactly the right ingredients for their dishes. One is John Besh, who once wanted to strengthen the flavor and texture of his veal-stock reductions at Restaurant August in New Orleans by adding collagen, the protein found in cattle that also produces gelatin.

I’ve had my Viking Charcoal Capsule for a year now, and it has instantly become my favorite cooking tool, hands down. Because of the ceramic liner and finely tuned vents, I can load up with natural charcoal, easily get the temperature as low as 250 degrees, and keep it there long enough to roast a pork shoulder –that’s a good six or seven hours!

Lifestyle Expert Moll Anderson has taken the interior design world and infused it with a fresh new way of thinking. Taking How-To TV to the next level, Anderson believes that if you change your home you can change your life.

In Saigon, I closely studied the flavors of Vietnam. I came to love the sticky rice that purposefully clumps together instead of standing apart. I came to know the perfume of anise-scented basil. I pledged, again, my devotion to the pleasant cloy of cilantro.

It’s a glorious, late spring morning in Napa Valley. I’m decked out in a borrowed camouflage jacket two sizes too big, crouched on the ground in a vineyard in Oakville, rubbing two pieces of wood together and hoping to God the noise it creates resembles the sound of a female turkey, or hen.

Good food begins at the farm. Today, food enthusiasts and chefs alike are enjoying the taste of juicy steaks, flavorful pork chops and sweet, succulent lamb, all of which comes from animals raised in America on sustainable family farms using humane practices.

Dressed in jeans and a red t-shirt, his hair tousled, his Vandyke trimmed, his eyes bright and earnest behind a pair of mod glasses, Bayless looks and sounds like a waylaid doctoral candidate, still enthralled by his research.

The Mediterranean diet has long been hailed as a model for how to eat for healthy living. One of the pillars of the Mediterranean diet is olive oil, and often it’s the only fat present in the diets of people described as healthy for how they eat.

For many people, an awkward aspect of dining in a fine restaurant is the selection and service of wine. The source of discomfort is in not recognizing wines on the wine list; confusion in pairing wines with the food being ordered; and how to appropriately seek assistance.

As the American culinary stage has gained sophistication in recent years, selecting an appropriate wine for a meal has deservedly become a prominent consideration. Accordingly, a significant portion of the future content of Viking Life will include this topic.

One of the most frequent frustrations of culinary enthusiasts about wine and food pairings involves the pleasures of the grill. And, to be sure, there are several aspects of the flavors and textures common to grilled, smoked, or barbecued food that significantly impact the enjoyment of wine.

Chef Masaharu Morimoto – known to millions as star of "Iron Chef" and "Iron Chef America" – is as comfortable cooking against the clock for a live television audience as he is preparing his signature omakase menu at his namesake restaurants.

Whether it’s good old-fashioned Macaroni and Cheese or a Swiss fondue featuring pungent cheese cousins Gruyere and Raclette, almost every one of my favorite dishes to cook features some type of world-class cheese.

New Orleans is the kind of town that never passes up a chance to celebrate something. Réveillon dinners began as a 19th century French custom and most of the restaurants taking part offer the event at bargain prices.

The first guideline for serving sparkling wine is: Do it. Don’t think you have to wait for a special occasion to open a bottle of bubbly. Too many people believe sparkling wine is only for birthdays, anniversaries, and other infrequent celebrations.

Provence. The name itself conjures up images of azure blue skies, golden fields of sunflowers, gnarled cypress trees reaching for the heavens, a seascape dotted with fishing vessels, and the pervasive bouquet of lavender, roses, and the sea.

My dear friend was invited to an exclusive deer hunt in northern California, but he still had much of last year’s hard-won buck in the freezer. He needed the space. Would I please pick up the venison meat and make something worthy?

The gardens are offering up cucumbers to marinate into cool, refreshing salads, and tomatoes for insalata caprese, fresh pasta sauces, canning, roasting, and eating in huge bites with just some salt, oregano and olive oil.

“How would you like to host a dinner for Aubert de Villaine?" asked my friend Gib Rockwood of Wilson Daniels, a wine importer. I have been a sommelier for 12 years and have had some wonderful wine evenings, but I knew I was in for a special treat.

Integral to an appreciation and understanding of the diverse food cultures of the American South is the collection and preservation of the stories behind the food. The Southern Foodways Alliance’s Oral History Initiative seeks to capture stories of Southerners who grow, create, serve, and consume food and drink.

As the leaves begin to change color in northerly climates the world over, thoughts immediately turn to deeper wines and heartier fare. For me, this inevitably means the return to my dining table of Barolo.

Champagne holds a timeless and special place in the universe of wine, and it is a wine with which so many milestones in life are shared and measured. For hundreds of years the unique sparkling wines of these rolling hills east of Paris have captured the imaginations of artists and courtiers, and the world has been a richer place for the addition of a bit of bubbly.

Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics is the essential Ina Garten cookbook, focusing on the techniques behind her elegant food and easy entertaining style, and offering nearly a hundred brand-new recipes that will become trusted favorites.

Bordering the wide steps leading to the entrance of Samuel J. Green Charter School in Uptown New Orleans are planters and beds filled with clusters of bright green herbs and brilliant marigolds and petunias. The plants are much more than decoration: They’re symbols of the accomplishments of the students who grew them from seeds.

Just because the holiday season of 2006 is now behind us does not mean that there will be no more gift giving in the next twelve months, as Mother Nature’s gift giving season is about to begin. The luxuriant 2005 Burgundies are coming!

My first Christmas in Loro Ciuffenna was fun, Elvis on the stereo and snow on the mountain. Menu decisions were complicated as my so-called mother-in-law Angiola’s response to "What do you make for Christmas dinner?" was "Niente speciale." What? Nothing special?

If you want to join the ranks of wine collectors who put bottles away for the future, you’ll need to provide your selections with the optimum conditions for aging. Proper storage improves the chances that your wines will delight, not disappoint, when you open them.

Perhaps no class of wine has come further in the last decade than the once lowly rosé. With the days of Mateus Rosé and white zinfandel now firmly in the rear view mirror, a new generation of wine lovers has discovered just how flexible these outstanding, salmon-colored dry wines can be.

Today’s kitchens take to the great outdoors in ever-increasing numbers. The outdoor flavors, the experience of enjoying food hot off the grill, the fresh air environment — these all create a unique experience to spend time with loved ones.

Over the past 20 years, the level of dining sophistication among Americans has risen dramatically. The offerings by restaurants, specialty food shops, and even generic grocery stores have expanded to an extent that avails truly fine dining to anyone with the requisite interest.

She didn’t necessarily intend to cause a culinary revolution, but still, that is exactly what she did. These days you can’t pick up a magazine or read a menu without some chef, editor, or writer extolling the virtues of “eating locally, eating seasonally, and/or eating organically.”

Like many of the top wine regions in Europe, the 2005 vintage has worked its magic on the wines of the Loire Valley, and there are more outstanding vinous choices currently available from this bucolic region than has been the case for a generation.

As we approach the holiday season and begin reading the articles in the food magazines and Web sites about the feasible feasts we can offer our families and friends, we are confronted with the issue of wines to be served.